Family Don't End With Blood
by heycassbut
Summary: Adeline Davis has been best friends with Dean Winchester for as long as she can remember. But when John Winchester goes missing and Sam joins them on hunts... things get complicated, things get crazy, and demons get involved. (Takes place in Season 1) *Rating subject to change*
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Yeah, I don't own _Supernatural_.

* * *

Adeline Davis had been best friends with Dean Winchester since she was six years old. They had been best friends ever since she had been stuck with John Winchester after her father's death. She was merely a child, but had already been in the hunting life for years. She was experienced, and John figured that she wouldn't slow them down. He took her in, finished her training, and housed her. He was glad to be of help to a fellow hunter, even if the hunter in question was no longer there to appreciate it.

Adeline and Dean were best friends from the start. The minute the pair met, they had been off on a whirlwind. Dean was seven, and Adeline was six. The pair had talked for hours on end about hunting. They spoke of hunts they'd been on (though there were only one or two) and hunts they were looking forward to going on (there were many more of these). They were a little too excited for their own good, if you were to ask John.

Adeline and Dean stuck together. And, after Sam ran off to Stanford, began doing hunts without John. They were well off. No one had been seriously injured. No one had died. They were right as rain. Until John went missing, that is. Adeline and Dean gave it a couple of weeks, but when they still hadn't heard from the man, they'd hightailed it to California.

Adeline had to admit, she was terrified to get Sam. She was more terrified than she had been when she'd first faced a vampire. And she was scared simply because she hadn't seen him in years. It was a wimpy reason, she knew, but it was true. Adeline had never been very good with people. And now, to go back to someone that she'd once considered a brother but hadn't spoken to in years? Well... Adeline wasn't looking forward to it, to say the least.

"Addie?" Dean called, snapping her out of her thoughts. They were standing in Sam's bathroom, having just climbed in through the window. "You ready?"

Adeline nodded and moved forward, making it out of the bathroom and into the hallway. She hadn't gotten much farther than that, though, when she tripped on her own feet and was sent crashing to the ground. She heard Dean chuckle lightly, and moved to get up. Adeline hadn't gotten all the way up before she froze, noticing that Dean had done the same.

Suddenly, he had jumped ahead of her and was wrestling with another man, one that Adeline assumed could only be Sam. She rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall as Dean quickly got the upper-hand. "Woah, easy, tiger."

"Dean?" Sam asked, his wide eyes shining through the darkness, "You scared the crap out of me!"

"That's 'cause you're out of practice," Dean replied with a cocky grin at his younger brother.

Sam suddenly lashed out, flipping Dean so that Sam was on top and Dean was on the bottom. Adeline laughed lightly, she always could leave it to Sam to deflate his brother's head, even if it was just slightly. "Or not," Dean said, "Get off me."

Sam climbed off Dean, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well," Dean replied, "I was going to go looking for a beer before Addie here tripped and fell." He gestured to the girl on the ground, leaning against the wall.

"Addie's here, too?" Sam asked as Adeline stood up, taking a stance next to Dean, "What. The hell. Are you guys doing here?"

"Okay," Dean resigned, "All right. We gotta talk."

"Uh, the phone?" Sam asked incredulously, as if his brother was an idiot that hadn't considered the option in the least bit.

"If we'd have called, would you have picked up, Sam?" Adeline snapped suddenly, surprising both boys at her outburst.

Suddenly, the lights flicked on, revealing a woman that Adeline guessed to be Sam's girlfriend. She was wearing short shorts and a cropped Smurf's shirt. She looked half asleep. "Sam?" She asked.

"Jess, hey," Sam said, a bit awkwardly, "Dean, Addie, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"Wait, your brother Dean?" Jess asked, "His best friend, Addie?"

Dean was suddenly in full flirt mode, "Oh, I love the Smurfs. You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league."

Adele stepped on Dean's foot. That was Sam's girlfriend! He shouldn't be flirting with her! Jess looked extremely uncomfortable, "Just let me put something on."

Dean shook his head, "No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously. Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business. But, uh, nice meeting you."

Sam shook his head and moved to Jess, wrapping an arm around her. She watched him sideways, "No. No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

Dean struggled to find the right words, "Okay. Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam didn't seem to be getting the point, "So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift, he'll stumble back in sooner or later."

Adeline rolled her eyes at Sam's idiocy, "Sam, John's on a _hunting trip._ And he hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam's face remained impassive as he said, "Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside."

* * *

Sam, Adeline, and Dean were moving down the stairs of Sam's apartment building towards the parking lot. Sam still didn't seem to be understanding that Dean and Adeline wouldn't have come to him unless it was important. It was starting to get on Adeline's nerves. There was a reason she hadn't wanted to come to Sam's, after all.

I mean, come on," Sam was saying,t just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you."

"You're not hearing me, Sammy," Dean replied, "Dad's missing. We need you to help us find him. Adeline and I can't do this on our own."

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gate in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine."

"Not for this long. Now are you gonna come with me or not?" Dean asked.

Sam stopped suddenly, "I'm not."

"Why not?"

"I swore I was done hunting. For good," Sam told him.

Adeline started walking again, pushing ahead of the boys. "Oh, come on Sammy. I know it wasn't the ideal childhood, but it wasn't _that_ bad. We had some good times on the road."

"Yeah?" Sam asked, "When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet he gave me a .45."

"Well, what was he supposed to do?" Adeline asked, defending the man that had been more like a father to her than her actual father. It wasn't that her real dad wasn't a good one. It was just that... well, he hadn't been there long enough.

"I was nine years old!" Sam exclaimed, "He was supposed to say 'Don't be afraid of the dark'."

"Don't be afraid of the dark?" Dean asked, hardly able to believe his brother, "Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark, you know what's out there."

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her. But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find."

"We save a lot of people doing it, too," Dean countered.

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Sam asked. Adeline shrunk back a bit at the mention of the boys' mother. She always tried to stay out of _those_ arguments. Dean rolled his eyes and walked out of the door, Sam following closely behind. Adeline paused on the staircase for a moment, taking deep breaths in an attempt to relieve her frustration at Sam before following both boys to the Impala.

When Adeline had caught up with the boys, Sam was still ranting about how much of a crappy childhood he'd had, "The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors. Look at Adeline. She was _born _into the life, Dean. She never even had a glimpse of a real childhood. She was stuck in motels her entire life, Dean. Crap, Dean. We were raised with crap."

The three crossed the parking lot and Dean began talking before Adeline had a chance to defend her childhood, "So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it? Besides, _Adeline_ likes the life. _She_ doesn't complain about it."

Sam ignored Dean's remark about Adeline, and Adeline decided to stay out of the conversation all together. She figured that at this point, she would be more of a harm than anything else. "No. Not normal. Safe," Sam told Dean.

"And that's why you ran away," Dean accused.

"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already, I can feel it. Addie and I can't do this alone," Dean countered.

"Yes, you can," Sam replied.

"Yeah, well, we don't want to," Dean said, knowing it was a partial lie. _He_ wanted Sam to come back hunting with them. Adeline, on the other hand, was absolutely terrified of what it would be like to have him in the Impala again. She had some serious social anxiety. When it came to things that really mattered, anyway. Like family, for instance.

Sam looked absolutely beat, "What was he hunting?"

Adeline grinned and jumped off the hood of the Impala, moving to the trunk and popping it open. The trunk was full with papers, weapons, and empty beer bottles. It was way worse than it had been when Sam was still with them. She pulled up a shotgun to keep the trunk open and dug through the clutter, "Okay, where the hell did Dean put that thing?"

"So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam asked, leaning up against the side of the Impala.

Dean leaned next to him, on the side closer to the trunk that Adeline was searching through, "We were working our own gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans."

"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Sam asked, completely surprised, and a little bit impressed.

six. All right, here we go. So John was checking out this two lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy. They found his car, but he vanished. Completely M.I.A."

"So maybe he was kidnapped," Sam supplied.

"Yeah, maybe," Adeline replied, shuffling through the papers, "Well, here's another one in April, another one in December '04, '03, '98, '92, ten of them over the past twenty years, all men, all the same five-mile stretch of road. It started happening more and more, so John went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. We hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." She pulled out a recorder, "Then Dean got this voicemail yesterday."

She pressed "play" and John's voice sounded. There was loads of static in the background, "Dean... Addie... something big is starting to happen... I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, guys. We're all in danger."

"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam asked.

"Not bad, Sammy," Dean grinned, "Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it? All right. Addie slowed the message down, she ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what she got."

As if on queue from Dean, Adeline pressed "play" on the recorder once more. A woman's voice sounded this time, "I can never go home..."

"Never go home," Sam said, lost in thought.

Adeline stood and shut the trunk, leaning against it. Dean spoke, "You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing."

"All right. I'll go," Sam resigned, "I'll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here."

"What's on Monday?" Adeline asked, curious.

"I have this... I have an interview."

"What, a job interview?" Dean asked, "Skip it."

"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate."

Adeline furrowed her brow at Sam, "Law school?"

Sam ignored her, "So we got a deal, or not?"

"Yeah, we got a deal," Dean told him. Sam nodded and walked back into the apartment, leaving Adeline and Dean to themselves.

"How you holding up?" Dean asked Adeline once Sam was out of hearing distance, having noticed the looks on her face when Sam didn't want to come with them.

Adeline sighed, "I just hadn't realized how much I'd really missed Sammy, you know? And to have thought that he didn't want to come with us... I don't know what I'd have done if he said no, Dean."

Dean opened his mouth to respond, to attempt to say something reassuring to Addie, but she pushed past him, climbing into the passenger seat and shutting the door behind her.

* * *

The next day, the Impala was parked in front of a gas pump. Sam was sitting in the back seat (Adeline having argued that though he may be bigger, she _was_ older), rifling through a box of tapes. Adeline was in the passenger seat, leaning her head against the headrest. Her eyes were closed, though she wasn't asleep. She was more so... absorbing the sunlight. Moments later, Dean walked out of the convenience store attached to the gas station. He was carrying a load of junk food.

"Hey! You want breakfast?" He called, making his way over.

Adeline grinned widely, "Yes!" Dean tossed her a Twinkie and she caught it easily, unwrapping the wrapper and popping it in her mouth.

Sam grimaced slightly, "No, thanks. So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and Dad still running credit card scams?"

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career. Besides, all we do is apply, it's not our fault they send us the cards."

"Yeah?" Sam asked, "And what names did you write on the application this time?"

Dean climbed into the Impala and got behind the wheel, "Uh, Burt Aframian. And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal."

Adeline frowned, "I still didn't get one."

Sam smiled, "That sounds about right. I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection."

"Why?" Dean asked, offended at the slight against his music taste.

"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes," Sam told him, "And two, Black Sabbath? Motörhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."

"Well, house rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole."

"Sammy's not even in shotgun, Dean," Adeline reminded him, munching on the last of her Twinkie.

Dean ignored Adeline's statement and snatched a tape from Sam, putting it in the player. "Back in Black" by AC/DC blasted from the speakers.

"You know," Sam told them, "Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It's Sam, okay?"

"Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud!" Dean called, making Adeline laugh heartily.

* * *

Later that day, the three were still in the Impala, though now they were driving along the highway. They had just passed a sign that read "Jericho 7". Sam was talking on his cell phone. "Thank you," he said to the person before leaning forward so that he was in between Adeline and Dean, "All right. So, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue, so that's something, I guess."

"Check it out," Dean replied.

There was a crime scene in progress on a bridge ahead of them. There was police tape around a beat-up car, several police cars, and various people in uniform milling around. On the river below the bridge, there were even more people conducting another part of the search.

"I say we go," Adeline suggested.

As the three climbed out of the Impala and made their way to the crime scene, they could vaguely here the people conducting the investigation. One cop was yelling down the bridge to another man, presumably a detective, "You guys find anything?"

The man below the bridge yelled back up, calling, "No! Nothing!"

There was another cop in the beat-up car. He spoke to the first, "No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints. Spotless. It's almost too clean."

"So, this kid Troy. He's dating your daughter, isn't he?" The first cop asked the second.

"Yeah," The second replied.

"How's Amy doing?"

The second cop sighed, "She's putting up Missing posters downtown."

The pair were approached by Sam, Dean, and Addie. Dean spoke, "You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?"

"And who are you?" The first cop asked warily.

Dean flashed his (fake) badge, "Federal Marshals."

"You three are a little young for Marshals, aren't you?" The cop asked.

Adeline smiled, "Awh, thank you. But you _did_ have another, didn't you?"

"Yeah, that's right," The cop answered, "About a mile up the road. There've been others before that."

"So, this victim, you knew him?" Sam asked.

The cop nodded, "Town like this, everybody knows everybody."

"Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?" Dean asked.

The cop shook his head, "No. Not so far as we can tell."

"So what are you thinking?" Addie asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

The first cop shrugged, "Honestly, we don't know. Serial murder, kidnapping ring...?"

"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys," Dean told him. Sam stepped on Dean's foot, hard. Adeline stifled a laugh.

"Thank you for your time. Gentlemen," Sam put on a fake smile. The three turned around and walked off, but as they walked away, Dean smacked Sam on the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Sam asked.

"Why'd you have to step on my foot?" Dean hissed.

"Why do you have to talk to the police like that?"

Addie smiled, "Because it's funny."

Dean's smile matched Adeline's, "Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves." Sam cleared his throat. Dean turned to see a sheriff and two men in FBI jackets.

"Can I help you boys?" The Sheriff asked.

"No, sir, we were just leaving. Agent Mulder. Agent Scully. Agent..." he paused, out of fake names and needing one for Adeline. He scrambled to find the first thing he could come up with, "Smith."

* * *

Later on, Sam, Dean, and Addie walked past a movie theater, noticing that the Marquee read:

EMERGENCY TOWN HALL MEETING SUNDAY 8PM BE SAFE OUT THERE

There was a teenage girl sticking up posters. "I'll bet you that's her," Dean muttered.

"Yeah," Sam agreed with a nod of his head.

The approached the girl and Adeline smiled, attempting to seem friendly, "You must be Amy."

Amy nodded, "Yeah."

"Yeah, Troy told us about you," Dean said, "We're his uncles. That's his aunt. I'm Dean, this is Sammy and Addie."

Amy furrowed her brow, "He never mentioned you to me."

Dean nodded, "Well, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto."

"So, we're looking for him too," Sammy said, "and we're kinda asking around."

Another girl approached Amy and placed her hand on Amy's arm, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Amy nodded.

"Mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Addie asked.

* * *

A few minutes later, the five of them were sitting in a booth, Addie was squished between Dean and Sam, opposite of the two girls. She was quite uncomfortable.

"I was on the phone with Troy," Amy explained, "He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and, uh, he never did."

"He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?" Sam asked.

Amy shook her head, "No. Nothing I can remember."

Addie suddenly spoke up, nodding to the pentagram on Amy's chest, "I like your necklace. Where'd you get it?"

"Troy gave it to me," Amy told her, "Mostly to scare my parents. With all that devil stuff."

"Actually, it means just the opposite," Sam supplied, making Addie and Dean look at each other and roll their eyes. "A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing."

"Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries," Dean interrupted, "Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything." The girls shared a look. "What is it?"

"Well, it's just... I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk," The girl that had approached Amy on the street said.

Dean, Sam, and Adeline spoke in unison, something they rarely did, "What do they talk about?"

"It's kind of this local legend," The girl said, "This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago. Well, supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever."

* * *

Dean, Sam and Adeline were in a library. Dean was sitting at a computer, trying to search for the woman, but having no luck. Sam stood over his shoulder, itching to search himself. Addie sat at a computer next to Dean, playing games on a children's website instead of helping with the research.

"Let me try," Sam volunteered.

"I got it," Dean insisted. Sam was already shoving Dean's chair out of the way and taking over. Dean hit him on the shoulder.

"Dude! You're such a control freak."

"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Dean nodded.

"Well, maybe it's not murder."

He tried another thing, and Dean turned to look at Addie's computer. She looked like she was having much more fun. She was playing a game made for two characters that involved a lot of jumping and shooting, though one of the characters stood off to the side. "Wanna help?" She asked, noticing Dean looking on.

Dean smiled, "Thought you'd never ask." She moved over to the character controlled by the w, a, s, and d, while he took the arrows. Soon, they were both jumping and shooting away.

"This was 1981," Sam said, oblivious to the fact that neither of them was paying any attention, "Constance Welch, twenty four years, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river." When he didn't get a reply, he looked over at Dean and Addie. He cracked a smile at the two. "Addie? Dean?" The didn't answer. Sam sighed and pushed them, not willing to yell in a library.

"What?" Addie asked, exasperated. Sam retold his story, and once he'd finished, Addie and Dean sat in silence for a moment.

"Does it say why she did it?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Sam replied

"What?" This time it was Addie who asked the question.

"An hour before they found her she calls 9-1-1," Sam said, "apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub, she leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back they aren't breathing. Both die." He turned to the computer, now reading from an article, "'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it', said husband Joseph Welch."

"Hey," Addie said, pointing at the picture in the article, "Does that bridge look familiar to you?"

* * *

Later that night, Sam, Dean, and Addie had come back to the bridge. Dean stopped the care near the entrance.

"So this is where Constance took the swan dive," Dean said, looking over the edge of the bridge.

"So you think John would have been here?" Addie asked, peering over at the same spot.

"Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him," Dean answered

"Okay, so now what?" Sam asked.

"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while."

Sam sighed, "Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday-"

Monday," Dean interrupted with a nod, "Right. The interview."

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I forgot, too," Addie piped in, "You're really serious about this, aren't you, Sammy?"

"You think you're just going to become a lawyer? Marry your girl?" Dean added.

"Maybe," Sam said, "Why not?"

"Does Jessica know the truth about you?" Dean asked, "I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"

Sam shook his head, "No, and she's not ever going to know."

"Well, that's healthy," Dean laughed, "You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." Addie backed off, sensing that this conversation was going to get real hostile, real fast.

"And who's that?"

"You're one of us," Dean told him.

"No. I'm not like you, I'm not like Addie, and I'm most certainly not like Dad," Sam said, "This is not going to be my life."

"You have a responsibility to-" Dean began, only to be interrupted by Sam.

"To Dad? And his crusade? To you? To Addie? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back."

If Adeline had thought Dean was mad seconds ago, it was nothing compared to Dean now. He'd been fuming during the argument, but after that comment from Sam, he'd finally snapped. He grabbed Sam by the collar and shoved him against the railing of the bridge. Don't talk about her like that." He released Sam and walked away, Addie hot on his heels, thinking she could calm him. He stopped suddenly, seeing a woman in a white dress standing on the bridge railing and causing Addie to walk, her face hitting his back.

Sam," Addie said warily. The woman looked at them, as if she were madly depressed, then dived off the bridge. Sam, Dean, and Addie run to the bridge, looking over.

"Where'd she go?" Dean asked, peering even further.

"I don't know," was the reply from Sam.

Suddenly, from behind them, the lights of the impala turned on and the engine started. Addie's eyes widened.

"What the-" Dean began.

"Who's driving your car?" Sam asked.

Slowly, Dean pulled his keys out of his pocked and jingled them. The car jerked into motion, heading directly at them. Addie, Sam, and Dean took off.

"Addie?" Dean called, feeling immensely protective of the girl he considered to be his sister, knowing that she couldn't run nearly as fast as either he or Sam.

"Right here," she panted, coming up behind him and standing next to him. Dean grabbed Addie's wrist and pulled her along. He reached the railing and the pair jumped, noticing Sam do the same in an attempt to get away from the possessed Impala.

* * *

A/N: I hope that was good? I'm going to be splitting each episode into two parts in an attempt to make the story a bit longer, so I hope you don't mind.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yeah, I still don't own _Supernatural_.

* * *

Dean and Adeline went flying down off the bridge and into the water below. Adeline grimaced at both the temperature of the water and how dirty it clearly was. She also found herself wondering how she and Dean weren't dead when Constance had thrown herself off the same bridge and succeeded in killing herself.

"Dean? Adeline?" The call came from Sam, up above the water. He clearly was the smartest of the group, as he was the only one who had the decency to hold onto the bridge, though Adeline planned on blaming Dean and that he had refused to let go of her hand, therefore dragging her to the mucky waters with him.

Adeline crawled out of the water, knowing that Dean was right next to her. She flicked her hair out of her face and wiped some mud out of her eyes before collapsing on the ground, completely exhausted more than anything else. "What?" Dean yelled up to Sam from where he stood above her.

"Hey! Are you all right? Where's Addie?" Sam called down from where he was climbing back onto the bridge. His voice showed that he was clearly relieved (at least somewhat) that Dean was well enough to speak to him. To yell, even.

"We're super," Dean replied, put in a bit of a bad mood by the fall, "Addie's right here with me."

Addie stood up slowly. She looked at Dean with a deep-set frown on her face. "You just _had_ to drag me down into the water with you, didn't you, Dean?"

Dean rolled his eyes at Addie's statement. "Like you would have thought to hold onto the bridge yourself. You're just as bad as me. Besides, you should be thanking me. If it wasn't for me, you probably wouldn't have made it off the bridge in the first place." Addie just grumbled, walking away from Dean and the river.

* * *

Once Addie and Dean had gotten back to the bridge, Dean had immediately checked on his car. He was obviously more concerned about it than he was about Sam or Addie. He had just been shutting the trunk and leaning on it when Sam spoke.

"Your car all right?" Sam asked. He wasn't actually that concerned for the car. He was more so worried about how Dean would act if his car had been ruined or something. Dean had about three good relationships in his life. Two of them were with Addie and Sam, whom he thought of as family. The other was with the Impala.

"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!" Dean replied. Addie found herself letting out a breath at that. The Impala was fine and Dean wouldn't be in a pissy mood for the rest of the night.

"Clearly she doesn't want us digging through her shit, Dean. What the heck are we supposed to do now, Dean?" Addie asked, still mad at Dean, though she knew deep down that she'd likely be Dead if it wasn't for him.

Dean threw his arms up in frustration and flicked mud off of his hands, irritated that Addie was being so narrow-minded. Sam sniffed the air and made a face at Dean. "You smell like a toilet," he stated.

* * *

It was day by the time the three had managed to find a motel to stay in. The three stood in the middle of the lobby, checking in. Dean threw down a MasterCard with the name "Hector Aframian", the one he had mentioned at the gas station. "One room, please."

The old, grumpy clerk picked up the card. He frowned at it, possibly in confusion. "You guys having a reunion or something?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, most likely more confused than the clerk had been when he'd seen Dean's card. "Hector Aframian" was a made up name, and they were sure that "Aframian" wasn't a very common last name.

"I had another guy, Burt Aframian," the clerk told the three, "He came and bought out a room for the whole month." Dean, Adeline, and Sam shared significant looks at that. John had been to this motel.

* * *

A short while later, Sam, Addie, and Dean stood in front of John's room. Sam was in the process of picking the lock. He got it done very quickly and swung the door open, he and Adeline entering. Dean stood watch, but was quickly grabbed and pulled into the room by Sam.

Addie's eyes widened at the sight in front of her. John had been following the same case, all right. The room was what one could only describe as complete and utter madness. It was covered in newspaper clippings, maps, notes, arrows, and things of the sort. The floor might have been even more cluttered than the walls (if such a thing was popular). Okay, Wow," she breathed out.

Dean turned on a light by the bed and picked up a half-eaten burger sitting there. Sam steps over a line of salt on the floor, but Addie finds herself stuck in place. She doesn't remember things with John ever being _this _messy. Dean sniffed the burger he had in his hand and recoiled.

"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least," He told them, setting the hamburger down.

Sam fingered the salt on the floor before looking up at Dean. "Salt, cats-eye shells... he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in," he said.

Dean looks at the papers covering one wall. Addie sat on one of the beds, still trying to process everything. She found herself worrying about John even more so than she had been before. John could take care of himself, she knew. Sure, sometimes he got caught up in things and forgot to call, but he _never_ disappeared like this for this long. It was unheard of.

"What have you got here?" Sam asked Dean. IF he was as worried as Addie was, he was clearly hiding it.

Dean took a breath, "Centennial Highway victims. I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?"

Sam crossed over to the other wall and looked at the papers taped there. They were old articles and drawings. One of them was a post-it that read "Mortis Danse". There was also a scrap of paper that said "Woman In White" at the far end. Sam turned on another lamp. "Dad figured it out."

Addie had snapped out of her trance of sorts. "What do you mean?" she asked, turning her head in Sam's direction sharply.

"He found the same article we did," Sam told her, his attention turned to Addie, "Constance Welch. She's a Woman In White."

"You sly dogs," Dean said to the wall with a wide grin, ever the joker, "All right, so if we're dealing with a Woman In White Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it."

"She may have had another weakness," Addie supplied.

"Well, Dad would want to make sure," Dean told her, "He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"

"No, not that I can tell," Sam told Dean and Adeline, "If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband. If he's still alive." He was completely wrapped up in the case now, thinking mechanically.

"All right," Dean said, "Why don't you, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up. Addie, you coming?"

"Yeah," Addie said with a nod, walking out of the motel room but staying near the door as she waited for Dean. She was beyond eager to get herself cleaned up from the river muck. She _hated_ smelling. She honestly hated it more than anything.

"Hey, Dean?" Sam called, Dean turning stopping in the door and turning to face him, "What I said earlier... about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry." He really _was_ sorry about it. He hadn't meant to offend Dean or anything. He just got worked up sometimes.

Dean held a hand up to Sam, "No chick-flick moments."

Sam nodded his head, a small smile on his face as he spoke to Dean, "All right. Jerk."

Dean didn't miss a beat as he replied to Sam, the same way he always did. "Bitch." Addie smiled at that, though neither of them could see it. They'd always done that, and she was glad to have the sense of familiarity. She began walking to the other room, knowing that Dean was right behind her.

* * *

A short while later, Sam and Adeline stood together. Addie was all cleaned up, but Dean was still in the shower, getting washed up himself. Sam was holding his phone, and a voicemail from Jess was playing. "Hey, it's me," her voice said, "it's about ten twenty..."

Dean came out of the bathroom and grabbed his jacket, "Hey, guys. I'm starving, I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You want anything?"

"No thanks," Sam said, more hung up on his phone than anything. He missed Jess, he was nervous about his upcoming interview, and he just wanted to go back to school. He'd really liked being normal, even if it was just for a short amount of time.

"Aframian's buying," Dean offered, as if it would do anything to get Sam to change his mind.

Sam shook his head, hardly paying attention. "I'd like something," Addie told Dean, "I'm going to come, okay?" She grabbed her jacket from where it was strewn across the couch and followed Dean out the door.

* * *

...And straight to see the two deputies from before talking to the motel clerk. The clerk pointed at Dean and Addie. The pair turned on their heels, cursing. Dean pulled out his phone and called Sam.

"What?"

"Dude, five-oh, take off," Dean told him. Addie snuck a glance behind her and saw the deputies coming up behind them. Her eyes widened and her heart beat picked up as she turned back to Dean.

"What about you guys?" Sam asked, growing concern for the pair.

"Uh, they kinda spotted us. Go find Dad, we'll be fine," Dean told him, not entirely sure if they would be fine. They would try, though. He hung up the phone just as the two deputies approached. He turned and grinned at them, Addie taking slightly longer to gain confidence to be rude to cops, as she knew Dean would expect her to be.

"Problem, officers?" Dean grinned, hiding the nervousness that was only slightly there very well.

"Where's your partner? Your other partner, that is. The tall one," one of the deputies said to Dean, a hard look on his face.

"Partner? What, what partner?" Dean asked, feigning obliviousness. He jerked a thumb at Adeline, "Just me and her."

The deputy jerked _his_ thumb towards the motel room, and the other deputy walked over there. Dean fidgeted nervously, but Adeline knew she was much worse than him. She was probably trembling on top of it.

"So. Fake U.S. Marshal. Fake credit cards. You got anything that's real?" The first deputy asked the pair.

Adeline smiled, however tersely, "My boobs."

Moments later, the pair were arrested.

* * *

Addie and Dean sat in the police station a bit later, handcuffed and in front of a table. A door swung open and the Sheriff walked in, carrying a box. He set the box down and looked between them. "So you want to give us your real names?"

"I told you, it's Nugent. Ted Nugent," Dean said, completely unfazed by the Sheriff that sat in front in front of him.

"And I'm Oprah Winfrey, remember?" Addie said, sticking by the guise that they always used. They nearly always gave themselves the names of celebrities or fictional characters, claiming that it was more fun that way. Well, Dean claimed that. Addie thought they were more likely to get you arrested for real. It _was_ kind of fun to see the faces of the cops, she would admit.

"I'm not sure you two realize just how much trouble you're in here," the Sheriff told them, growing more and more fed up with the two and their complete and utter lack of cooperation.

"We talkin', like, misdemeanor kind of trouble, or, uh, squeal like a pig trouble?" Dean asked, a small sarcastic smile painted on his face.

"You got two the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall. Along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo-jumbo. You guys are officially suspects," the Sheriff told them, trying to sound intimidating.

"Makes some sense, I guess," Addie told him, "Because when the first one went missing in '82 I was two and he was three."

"I know you've got partners," the Sheriff said, "one of 'em's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing. So tell me. Dean. This his?" He tossed John's journal on the table, and Dean stared at it with wide eyes. Addie attempted to keep herself together. "I thought that might be your name. See, I leafed through this. What little I could make out. I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy. But I found this, too." He opened the journal to a page that reads "DEAN 35-111".

"Now. You two are stayin' right here until you tell me exactly what the hell that means," the Sheriff finished off.

"Hold on, hold on," Addie said, "Let's go back to the 'partners'. Do you _honestly_ think that this is some sort of family business? Some sort of _gang_?" She laughed lightly, "Who _exactly _do you take me to be?"

* * *

111" page. Dean leaned forward, frustrated. "I don't know how many times I gotta tell you. It's my high school locker combo."

"We gonna do this all night long?" the Sheriff asked with a deep sigh.

One of the deputies poked his head into the room and spoke to the Sheriff, "We just got a 9-1-1, shots fired over at Whiteford Road."

The Sheriff sighed slightly (Adeline found herself realizing that he really seemed to do that quite a bit), "Either of you have to go to the bathroom?"  
Addie shook her head and Dean said, "No."

"Good," The Sheriff nodded.

He handcuffed Dean and Addie to the table instead of to their own hands and left. Dean noticed a paper clip poking out of the journal, picked it up, and smiled. Addie glanced at what he was doing and grinned widely, fidgeting in her seat. Moments later, the pair were free and the deputies still hadn't made it out of the station completely. They ducked out of sight behind the door, escaping.

They made it to a payphone and Dean picked it up, calling Sam. Addie leaned against the wall silently. "Fake 9-1-1 call?" he asked Sam, "I don't know, Sammy, that's pretty illegal, even for us."

Sam said something on the other side that Addie couldn't hear, but she knew he wasn't concerned in the least bit. He was clearly smart enough to call from a payphone of his own, they wouldn't be able to track him.

"Listen, we gotta talk," Dean said, fussing with the wire on the phone.

Once again, Addie found herself unable to hear Sam and she looked around at their surroundings, not really taking things in as much as she was trying to let go of the whole one-sided-conversation thing. "Sammy, would you shut up for a second?" Dean asked, letting Adeline know that Sam had been rambling, as only Sam could manage to do. Sam spoke again and Adeline trained her focus on Dean now, taking in her best friend. Dean had always been handsome, she supposed, but she never found him attractive and she doubted that she ever would. They were... to close for that, if it was possible. They'd lived with each other for a long, long time. Once you live with someone for that long, it's pretty hard to think of them in _that_ way. "Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho." Adeline knew that Dean was talking about John's journal, and she also knew that Sam wouldn't understand. How could he? He didn't know that John had left his Journal.

Addie used to laugh at John's journal. She thought that it was awfully girly of him to have a _journal_. She would call it his 'diary'. Not to his face, of course, he'd be awfully mad if she did that. But through the years, Addie had grown to respect the journal. It was filled with tips and experiences from old hunts and facts on monsters that they wouldn't usually know about. Addie knew that John _never _left without his journal. For it to still be in Jericho meant that he hadn't left willingly. "I've got his journal," Dean replied to Sam, cutting through Adeline's thoughts.

There was a pause as Sam spoke again before Dean said something, "Yeah, well, he did this time." Another small pause. "Ah, the same old ex-marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going." Coordinates, of course. "I'm not sure yet." Sam must have been asking where they were to. There was another long pause and Dean's eyes widened. "Sam? Sam!"

He hung up the phone and started walking, though Adeline didn't know where too. "Dean? Dean?!" She called, trying to catch up with him, as he moved much faster than she did. She had to jog to keep up with his watch. "What's going on? What happened to Sam?"

"I don't know," was all Dean replied, installing a deep fear into Adeline for Sam.

* * *

A short while later, Dean and Adeline had arrived at what was Constance's old house. Sam seemed to be wrestling with Constance. He was losing. Desperately. Constance kissed Sam as he struggled to reach for something in the Impala. Sam yelled in pain and Dean and Adeline ran forward, Dean shooting at Constance. Sam had managed to sit up after a bit. He said something to Constance before driving the Impala into the house.

Dean and Adeline ran to meet him into the house. "Sam! Sam! You okay?" Addie called, kneeling in front of Sam.

"I think..." Sam muttered, glancing away from Addie.

"Can you move?" Dean asked, concern filling his eyes. He was just as bad as Adeline was, if not even worse.

"Yeah," Sam groaned out, "Help me?"

Dean and Addie helped Sam out of the Car, hardly out when Constance picked up a large framed photo. The picture had her and two young children. She looked at the photograph, clearly very distraught. She dropped the photo angrily and backed up. She sent a bureau flying at the three, pinning them against the car.

"Dammit," Adeline groaned, tilting her head back and wincing slightly. The lights flickered and Constance looked around, scared. Water began to trickle (and eventually pour) down the staircase. She moved over to it and at the top are the boy and the girl from the photograph. They're holding hands.

The boy and girl spoke in unison, "You've come home to us, Mommy."

Constance was distraught as she looked at them. Suddenly, they appeared behind her and embrace her tightly. She screams, her image flickering. Still screaming, she and the kids melt into a puddle in the floor. Adeline felt the sudden urge to laugh, but she resisted. The three of them shove the bureau over and go to look at the spot where they vanished.

"So this is where she drowned her kids," Dean muttered, looking down at the puddle.

"That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them," Sam spoke, ever the wise one.

"You found her weak spot," Addie noticed, frowning at the _puddle_ that was just three _ghosts_.

"Nice work, Sammy," Dean nodded, agreeing with Adeline. He wasn't nearly as affected by the puddles as Adeline seemed to be. Sam wasn't, either, for that matter. He slapped Sam on the chest, managing to hit the spot where he was injured.

Sam whimpered in pain, "Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"

"Hey. Saved your ass," Dean argued with a slight grin, "I'll tell you another thing, if you screwed up my car, I'll kill you." Addie laughed at that. Leave it to Dean to care about his car in a time like this.

* * *

I Impala roared down the road a while later, only one headlight out. Inside, Sam had gotten the passenger seat (he argued that, yes, she was older, but he was both taller _and_ injured). Addie was in the backseat and Dean was driving. Sam had the journal open and a map on his lap. He was finding the coordinates with a ruler, a flashlight tucked under his cheek. Addie would have offered to help, but she was hardly awake, and she'd likely be more of a nuisance.

"Okay, here's where Dad went," Sam told them, "it's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado."

Dean nodded, "Sounds charming. How far?"

"About six hundred miles," Sam replied.

"Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning," Dean said, looking at Sam. Addie didn't understand how they had never crashed; Dean hardly ever seemed to actually look at the road. She would bet money that was how they were going to die. Not hunting, but in a car crash.

Sam hesitated and Addie frowned. "Dean, um..." Sam told him, avoiding looking at Dean.

"You're not going, are you, Sammy?" Adeline asked, leaning forward and poking her head between the two brothers.

Sam nodded, "The interview's in like, ten hours. I gotta be there. You guys know that."

Dean nodded, though he was clearly disappointed. Adeline just leaned back in her seat and looked out the window. "Yeah. Yeah, whatever. I'll take you home," Dean told Sam, attempting to keep in his disappointment.

* * *

They pulled up in front of the apartment a bit later. Dean was still frowning, and Addie was fighting sleep. She refused to fall asleep without saying goodbye to Sam. You'd have thought she was better at staying up by now, but that was far from the case. Sam climbed out of the car and leaned over to look through the window.

"Call me if you find him?" He asked Dean and Adeline. Dean nodded, and Adeline just felt her eyes grow glossy. "And maybe I'll hook up with you later, huh?"

"Yeah, all right," Dean answered quietly. Sam began to walk away, but Dean spoke once more, "Sam? You know, we made a hell of a team back there."

"Yeah," Sam nodded solemnly.

Dean drove the Impala off. Addie leaned back into the Impala, completely resigned. Her eyes glossed over and a couple of tears slipped out, but she wiped them away quickly, hoping that Dean didn't notice.

"Kiddo?" Dean called, playing on the fact that she was younger than him by only a year. Addie looked up at him but said absolutely nothing. "You okay, there?"

Addie sighed and started to nod before a small sob wracked through her. She quickly changed her nod into a shake of the head, very aware that she wasn't nearly as strong as she wished she was. "It's just- It's just that... I've missed Sam. I've missed him so much. And I didn't want to admit it, Dean. I knew he wouldn't come back because he had some issues with John. And then he came back for this hunt and I just... I forgot that he had left. It was like old times, you know? I thought he was going to stay with us and help us find John towards the end, actually. I thought he'd put their differences beside, but... I don't know. It's stupid."

Dean opened his mouth to say something before glancing back at Sam's home, "I think Sam needs us."

* * *

Dean kicked the front door to Sam's house open, he and Addie running in. "Sam!" he called, running to the bedroom.

"Sammy!" Addie gasped, looking at Sam.

"Sam! Sam!" Dean called, looking up to see Jess on the ceiling, surrounded by flames. He was horrified, and so was Adeline. Dean grabbed Sam off the bed and shoved him out of the room. Sam struggled the entire way.

"Jess! Jess! No!" Sam called as Dean dragged him out. Flames engulfed the apartment and Addie immediately knew that whether he liked it or not, Sam's times at Stanford were over.

* * *

Sam, Dean, and Addie stood outside of the building just a bit later. Addie and Sam stood at the end of the trunk, Sam ruffling through it and Addie just looking at the scene ahead of her. Dean came over to the pair and Sam sighed, tossing his shotgun into the trunk with a nod. "We got work to do." He shut the trunk and they got into the Impala, driving far away from Stanford and Sam's old life.

* * *

A/N: So that's "Pilot". My writing's not all that good, I know. I'm still slipping into Dean and Sam, all the while trying to slip Addie into the mix. I know, things are really serious right now, but that's pretty much how Supernatural goes most of the time.

Also, now that I've got the first couple of chapters up, I'll only be updating about once a week because I've got a lot of other stuff going on at the moment. Sorry! I'll try to post every Tuesday.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I don't own _Supernatural._

* * *

"Hot-Blooded" was playing throughout the Impala when Sam jerked wide awake from where he lay in the backseat. Adeline turned back to face him as he blinked and rubbed his eyes. There was a look of concern etched across her face. Dean turned his head in their direction, but didn't really take his eyes off the road.

"You okay?" Dean asked, just as concerned as Addie was. Sam had been a mess ever since Jess died. He was convinced that her death was his fault. Sam thought that she only died because he wasn't there to save her. But if Adeline was completely honest with herself on the subject, she didn't think that Sam would have been able to save her even if he had been there.

Sam glanced out the window, away from Dean and Adeline. "Yeah, I'm fine," he stated, letting everyone know that he wasn't actually fine at all. Anyone who had ever met Sam would be able to tell.

Dean nodded warily, but turned most of his attention back to the road. Addie kept her concerned gaze trained on Sam. "Another nightmare?" she asked.

Sam cleared his throat. Dean sighed and said, "You wanna drive for a while?" Sam was surprised, but Addie wasn't. Not really, anyway. Dean knew he had to be there for Sam in a time like this, and he would do anything to keep his little brother happy. Even if it meant letting him drive the Impala for a while.

Sam laughed at Dean, "Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that." Addie smiled and turned back to the front, knowing that she didn't have to be _as_ worried about Sam at the moment.

"Just thought you might want to," Dean defended himself, frowning at his little brother, "Never mind."

"Look, man, you're worried about me," Sam said, sticking his head between Dean and Addie and leaning forward just slightly, "You too, Addie. I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."

"Mm-hm," Addie and Dean said in unison. The looked at each other for a moment before breaking out in grins at each other.

Sam ignored the pair and grabbed a map, studying it very closely. He was obviously looking for a change in topic, "All right, where are we?"

"Just outside of Grand Junction," Addie answered. She leaned forward to change the music, only to have her hand slapped away by Dean. She sent him a small glare before leaning back in her seat and staring straight ahead at the road.

Sam folded down the map. It was of Colorado and had a big red "X" labeled "35-111".

"You know what?" He asked, glancing up from the mask and looking between Dean and Adeline, "Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon." He was regretting not having looked harder for what killed Jess.

"Sam, we dug around there for a week," Dean told him, trying to console his brother without actually having to return to the college, "We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica-"

"We gotta find Dad first," Sam interrupted, as if he had said and heard the phrase hundreds of times. When in reality, he had only said and heard the phrase dozens of times.

"Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence," Dean told Sam. He was referencing to the fact that whatever had killed Jess had also killed the boys' mother, Mary. Adeline had heard the story before, and she knew it well. She had never met Mary, though. Neither of her parents had been killed by the thing, either.

"John will have answers. He'll know what to do," Addie supplied, trying to appear hopeful for the boys. She partially believed that John would know what to do. If he had _really_ known what to do, then Jess would never have died in the first place. He has spent the last twenty years in search of the thing that killed Mary, but with no luck. She did, however, agree that he would know what to do more than any of them would.

"It's weird," Sam told them, "These coordinates he left us. This Blackwater Ridge." He frowned down at the map.

"What about it?" Dean asked, speeding up slightly. He had a tendency to do that. He would speed up and then slow down, only to speed up and slow down again. Addie didn't know what the point was other than wasting gas.

"There's nothing there. It's just woods," Sam replied. He put the map down and looked at Dean and Addie, "Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"

Just as he finished speaking, they drove past a National Forest sign that said, "Welcome to LOST CREEK COLORADO National Forest".

* * *

"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote," Sam said. They stood in a Ranger Station, looking at a 3D map of the national forest. Sam was paying special attention to the ridge labeled "BLACKWATER RIDGE". Addie was staring straight through the diagram and Dean was looking at decorations. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place," he continued.

"Guys, check out the size of this freaking bear," Dean called, gaping at a photo of a man standing behind a much, _much_ larger bear. Sam and Addie looked over. Sam soon moved to stand next to Dean, Addie taking his other side.

"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area," Sam told them, "It's no nature hike, that's for sure."

"You three aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" A ranger asked them, startling Dean, Sam, and Addie. They whipped around, eyes wide.

"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder," Sam told him.

"Just working on a paper," Addie added with a polite smile.

Sam laughed a little, but Dean grinned and raised his fist, "Recycle, man."

"Bull," The ranger said. Sam's eyes flickered to Dean, whose eyes flickered to Addie. Addie just stiffened, her own eyes likely growing slightly wide. "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"

Dean paused for a moment, considering his lie, "Yes. Yes, we are, Ranger..." He paused checking the ranger's name tag, "Wilkinson."

"Well I will tell you exactly what we told her," The Ranger told them, "Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?" Dean shook his head and the Ranger continued on with his speech, "You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."

"We will," Dean replied, "Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?"

"That's putting it mildly," the Ranger grumbled/

"Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit," Dean told the Ranger, coming up with something completely in the spur of the moment. He was glad he had come up with it, too.

Addie nodded, "She'd probably like to see her brother's return date. It would help a lot."

The ranger looked between the two of them, and Dean just raised his eyebrows.

* * *

Sam, Dean, and Addie left the ranger station. Dean was holding the permit in his hand, laughing. "Why do you always do that?" Addie hissed, falling into step next to him as they made their way to the Impala.

"Do what?" Dean asked, slinging his arm around Addie and pulling her close to him jokingly. When he looked down at her, she noticed that he still had a grin etched across his face.

Addie frowned at him. "Look to _me_ for help when we get in those situations. Like when the man was doubting us. You _know_ I'm bad with people, Dean," Addie replied, ducking out of Dean's grasp and whacking him on the arm.

"That doesn't matter," Sam interrupted, "Dean, are you cruising for a hookup or something?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, frowning at Sam and rubbing his arm absentmindedly, though Addie highly doubted that it actually hurt him. When Dean was really hurt, he closed himself up, hardly let anyone know he was in pain. Sam and Addie had always been able to see right through Dean.

"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?" Sam asked, cutting straight to the chase. Dean and Sam stopped on opposite sides of the Impala. Addie was next to Dean, knowing that it was her turn to sit in the back.

"I don't know," Dean replied, "maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?"

There was a pause before Sam spoke and Addie took the opportunity to climb into the car so that she wouldn't have to participate in the conversation. She left the door open so that she was still able to hear what they were talking about, "What?"

"Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?" Dean asked, looking over the Impala at Sam.

"Since now," Sam replied. He turned away and opened the door to the Impala, climbing in and sitting quietly.

"Really?" Dean asked before he too got into the Impala, leading to an extremely awkward car ride on Adeline's part.

* * *

Adeline didn't think she would ever be more happy to get out of the Impala. The ride had been horrendous. It wasn't like Dean and Sam were fighting the entire drive. No, that would have been better than what she got. The entire ride to the Collins home, Adeline sat in silence. The boys wouldn't speak to each other at all. And the worst part was that once they stepped out of the car, they'd likely go right back to the way things were. As if they had never fought in the first place. Until something else comes up and they're even worse than before, that is.

Adeline had never been more glad to be standing outside a house, greeting a stranger. "You must be Haley Collins," Dean was saying to the girl that had opened the door of the house, "I'm Dean, this is Sam and Addie, we're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy."

The Haley chick hesitated, eyeing Dean. "Lemme see some ID." Addie fought not to crack a smile. She wasn't surprised that the girl was hesitant of Dean. He didn't exactly look like a ranger, after all. None of them did.

Dean didn't miss a beat. He pulled out a fake ID with the name 'Samuel Cole' (which Adeline didn't understand, he'd just introduced himself as Dean and Sam as Sam) and held it up against the screen. Haley looked at it, then at Dean. Dean smiled and Haley opened the door. "Come on in," she told them.

"Thanks," Dean replied.

The door swung open, and Haley clearly noticed the Impala. "That yours?" She asked.

"Yeah," Dean nodded. Sam and Addie turned back to look at the Impala, a bit confused as to why she was commenting on the car.

"Nice car." She turned and led the three into the kitchen, where someone else was sitting at the table on a laptop. Dean turned, mouthing something to Sam that Addie missed. Sam rolled his eyes at Dean and Addie rolled her eyes at the both of them for getting along like it was nothing.

* * *

"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam asked as they stood in the Collins' kitchen.

Haley walked back into the room with a bowl, placing it on the table, "He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard anything in over three days now."

"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception," Sam offered.

"He's got a satellite phone, too," Haley told him, sticking to what she thought. Addie understood where Haley was coming from. She and Dean _always_ stayed in touch. And before he had left for Stanford, Sam too. If one of them just... stopped contacting her while they were on a hunt or something, she would go ballistic. She was actually starting to think that Haley was acting relatively calm given the situation.

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked, doing the same thing as Sam and trying to find a reason as to why Tommy wouldn't be checking in with his family.

"He wouldn't do that," Haley's brother, Ben, told Dean. Dean eyed Ben until he looked away.

"Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other," Haley told them once she'd put some more food down on the table.

Addie snorted slightly, "Yeah, I know how you feel."

Sam ignored Addie and continued interrogating Haley, "Can I see the pictures he sent you?"

"Yeah," Haley replied, going over to a laptop and pulling up some pictures, "That's Tommy." She clicked twice and another picture came up on the screen. The frame continued opening to the last video.

The video was of Tommy, in a tent. "Hey Haley," he said, "day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow."

Sam must have spotted something, because his eyes narrowed. Dean spoke before he could say anything, "Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."

"Then maybe I'll see you there," Haley told Dean, "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

"I think I know how you feel," Dean replied.

Addie scoffed, "Honestly Dean? I _just_ said that and everyone ignored me."

"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked, interrupting the conversation that had been going on.

"Sure," Haley nodded.

* * *

Later that day, the three hunters entered a bar. "So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found," Sam told Dean and Addie as they sat down at a booth, Dean and Addie across from Sam. Sam opened John's journal and looked into it.

"Any before that?" Dean asked, frowning down at what his brother was looking at.

Sam pulled out a newspaper to show Dean and Addie, "Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack."

Addie looked at the headline of the newspaper:

"GRIZZLY BEAR ATTACKS! UP TO EIGHT HIKERS VANISH IN LOST CREEK AREA HIKERS DISAPPEARANCE BAFFLE AUTHORITIES' Families continue search and rescue efforts in spite of disappointing [...]"

Sam pulled out his laptop, "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936." He opened the laptop. It was already open to Tommy's video, "Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out."

Sam pulled up the video and went through the three frames one at a time. A shadow clearly passed through. "Do it again," Dean ordered.

Sam replayed the video, "That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."

Dean hit Sam over the head and Sam looked up at him. "Told you something weird was going on," Dean scolded.

"Yeah," was all Sam said as he shut his laptop.

"God," Addie groaned, "Is it just me, or is hunting like, ninety percent puzzle work?"

"I got one more thing," Sam told Dean and Addie, handing over another newspaper article. "In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."

Dean looked down at the _Lost Creeks Gazette_, not allowing any room for Addie to look at it. "Is there a name?"

* * *

Later that night, Addie, Dean, and Sam had managed to get into the man's house. He had agreed to speaking to them, but he did so with a cigarette in his mouth. It was starting to piss Addie off, if she was frank. "Look, rangers, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—"

Sam interrupted the man, "Grizzly? That's what attacked them?"

The man, who they had found to be named Shaw, took a puff of his cigarette, let it out, and nodded. "The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean asked.

The man paused and Addie frowned, "Is it the same with the people this year? Is it the same thing?"

There was another pause and Dean spoke, "We knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."

"I seriously doubt that," Shaw scoffed, "Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." He sat down on the couch, "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."

Sam sat down across from Shaw, "Mr. Shaw, what did you see?"

Shaw paused before he spoke. He honestly seemed to be struggling with the idea that they would believe him. Everyone did. "Nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard."

"It came at night?" Sam asked. Shaw nodded. "Got inside your tent?" Sam pressed on like it was nobody's business and he was a real interrogator. Addie thought it was pretty impressive how he was able to do it.

"It got inside our cabin," Shaw explained, relenting, "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming."

"It killed them?" Sam asked.

"Dragged them off into the night," Shaw replied with a small shake to his head. "Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since." There was a pause and Shaw's hands went to his collar. "Did leave me this, though."

He opened his shirt to reveal three long claw marks down his chest. Sam and Dean examined them, but Addie couldn't bring herself to. It wasn't the marks, but more so the idea of seeing the old man naked.

* * *

Sam, Addie, and Dean walked down the motel hall later on, having left Mr. Shaw's house. "Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls," Dean was saying.

"So it's probably something else, something corporeal," Sam nodded.

"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor," Dean teased.

Addie rolled her eyes at Dean but ignored him, nodding more so at Sam, "Corporeal. We can kill it if it's some sort of creature, can't we? What do you think, Dean?"

"Theclaws, the speed that it moves...could be a skinwalker," Dean suggested, "maybe a black dog. Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it, like you said."

* * *

Dean opened the Impala's trunk and then the weapon box inside. He propped it open with a shotgun and put some other guns in a duffel bag. Sam leaned in next to Dean, but Addie hung back. "We cannot let that Haley girl go out there," he said.

"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?" Dean countered, not looking up at this little brother.

"Yeah," Sam nodded, "What would you do if it was Addie, Dean? Would you let her go out there alone?"

Dean eyed Sam, "Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend. And yeah, by the way. I would let Addie go. You know why? Because I trust her. She can protect herself out there."

Dean picked up the duffel bag and Sam spoke again, "Finding Dad's not enough? Haley's not _nearly_ as trained as Addie is, Dean. We'd be lucky for her to be trained at all." Sam slammed the weapons box shut and then the trunk, "Now we gotta babysit too?"

Dean and Addie both stared at Sam. "What?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Dean and Addie said in unison. Dean through the bag at Sam and the pair walked off. Sam stared after them, wondering what he had said to make them act so... alike.

* * *

Dean, Addie, and Sam pulled up to the woods in the Impala, all climbing out. Sam walked around back to get the duffel bag while Dean and Addie moved to face Haley and the rest of her expedition crew. "You guys got room for two more?" Dean asked.

"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley asked, a bit surprised at the hunters appearance to her trek, though she didn't know anywhere near the full extent of what they were capable of.

"Who are these guys?" Some man asked. The man clearly had some hiking experience, but it looked like he thought he had a lot more than he actually did. He reeked of cockiness.

"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue," Haley told him as Sam headed past everyone.

"You're rangers?" The man asked, eyeing Dean and Adeline.

Addie flashed him a smile, "Yes, sir."

"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley asked them, beginning to doubt their credibility.

Dean and Addie looked down at themselves. "Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts," Dean told her, walking past to where Sam stood.

Addie walked up to Haley, patting her on the shoulder, "Honey, these are female made _combat_ boots. They're going back in style." She winked at her and moved to where same and Dean were, smiling to herself.

"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt," the man-to-be-deemed-cocky told the three, clearly beginning to get angry.

Sam and Addie turned back as Dean spoke, "Believe me, I know how dangerous it can be. We just wanna help them find their brother, that's all." He didn't say another word after that, just walked past Sam and Addie.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so this chapter is a bit shorter than it ideally would be, but this seemed like a good place to stop and it just means that the next chapter will be extra long. I know as of now, there isn't much character development with Addie or anything, but it's coming, I promise. I don't want a whole bunch of stuff too soon.

As per one of my favorite authors on this site, LizzeXX. I think it's time for some notes on reviews!

**Stardust67:** Thank you for reading! It means a lot, really. As of now, I know I'll be finishing Season 1 and doing all of Season 2, but after that, I'm not positive.


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